Never Too Old To Play™

It’s been a while since the shift of power in the console gaming industry from Japanese developers to their Western counterparts. Microsoft kick started this trend with the introduction of the Xbox, a video game console that was similar enough in architecture and design to a PC that formerly PC-centric developers had little problems porting their titles to the system. All of a sudden, Western developers like Bungie, Epic, id, and Valve who were marquee players in the world of Windows and Macintosh gaming but virtually unknown by gamers whose cash lined the coffers at Nintendo, Sega and Sony found themselves at the door of a whole new market of consumers.

However, while the console gaming population’s appetite for games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto III, and Splinter Cell grew, they still relied on Japanese developers like Square and Namco for their role-playing fix. Game series like Final Fantasy, Xenosaga, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest were among the many Japanese role-playing franchises available on the PlayStation 2, and the genre contributed to the console’s greatest strength: its “something for everyone” library of software. Some titles even reached blockbuster status with four in the top ten list of best selling PlayStation 2 games.

Then, the Xbox 360 arrived and everything changed. (Cue dramatic music.)

Actually, all Microsoft did was take the smart approach with regards to the design of their new console. (Cue PlayStation 3 fanboys ranting about RROD.) Microsoft knew the appeal the Western style of game development, up to that point mostly exclusive to the PC platform, would have with the growing video game market, and knew what those developers liked about working with the Xbox. Instead of trying to make radical changes for the sake of change (and under the guise of innovation), they simply expanded on what already worked and kept the architecture similar enough that the transition from Xbox to Xbox 360 would be fairly easy for developers. More importantly, they listened when the teams demanded more memory without which games like Gears of War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare would have been impossible.

One of the results of this approach was the release of highly evolved fourth entry in the Elder Scrolls role-playing game series on video game consoles. Oblivion arrived to much fanfare due to the high degree of character customization, the vast and fully realized world, the sheer number of characters with whom to interact, the epic story, and the beautiful graphics which all but guaranteed that gamers who weren’t interested in role-playing games before took notice. Critics raved about the game to the tune of a mid-90s average review score and many year end awards. The game went on to sell 2.93 million units on the Xbox 360 platform and 1.15 million units on the PlayStation 3 platform.

Bethesda followed up this masterpiece two and a half years later with the even better Fallout 3, a more action-oriented role-playing game set in the post apocalyptic world of the Fallout series of computer role-playing games. Fallout 3 was almost the exact opposite of Oblivion as far as concept – instead of a high fantasy world of wizards and warriors, elves and monsters, and good and evil, you had a depressing glimpse at a realistically possible future set on the desolate backdrop of a ravaged Washington D.C. where the denizens didn’t have the luxury of worrying much about the morality of their choices.

Similarly, BioWare’s space opera Mass Effect, released a year before Fallout 3 in 2007, challenged the player’s own perception of what was right and wrong. Although the setting was completely different – Mass Effect took place in a distant future where humans are galaxy-trotting with aliens on board advanced starships – the developers had the same approach with regards to the choices you made: almost nothing was clear cut good and evil, and it was commonplace for someone to find themselves conflicted about which path was the right one to take.

What these three games did was introduce console gamers to actual role-playing games where the gamer actually plays a role by deciding what their character says and does, and how they say and do it. Until this point, most gamers only knew Japanese RPGs, which were games that merely paid lip service to the term “role-playing game” – the stat-building aspect of traditional tabletop role-playing games was there but the spirit of the genre was missing.

Oblivion, Mass Effect and Fallout 3 opened gamers’ eyes to the reality of JRPGs. The wool over their eyes had been lifted and many realized just how shallow and simple these games were: it’s kind of hard to go back to the linear progression, restrictive turn-based combat, static stories, and canned dialogue that simply served as sound for pre-rendered cutscenes when you’ve experienced open worlds, thousands of dialogue options, real-time action, and the ability to make choices that have an actual impact on the game.

The old style of “role-playing” was no longer acceptable, and both sales and critical reviews reflected this new attitude. Of all the JRPGs released this generation, only one – Final Fantasy XIII - broke a million units sold with 1.88 million as of early February. Mind you, this is after seven weeks on sale in Japan where Final Fantasy XII sold 1.82 million units in Japan in the first week alone and ended up with a total 5.69 million units worldwide when all was said and done.

Games without the benefit of a mega franchise fared significantly worse at retail: Infinite Undiscovery from Square moved only 0.57 million units; Blue Dragon moved less than that at 0.53 million worldwide; and the well-reviewed Demon’s Souls (GameSpot’s 2009 Game of the Year) has only managed 0.63 million in sales. And none of the JRPGs released this generation have achieved aggregate scores in the 90’s at MetaCritic whereas just one – Demon’s Souls - barely made it at GameRankings (Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect 2 all scored in the 90’s on both sites).

And if the game with one of the biggest brand names in console gaming history can’t put Japanese role-playing games back in the spotlight, what game can? Dragon Quest X? Highly unlikely despite the history of that series because the game will be a Wii exclusive. A third Kingdom Hearts game? The Final Fantasy series has historically sold better and received better reviews so the likelihood of that currently theoretical game surpassing Final Fantasy XIII is probably low. Plus, the real diehard Disney gamers are actually likely to spend the money on a Wii (if they don’t already have one for all those Disney licensed games) just to play Epic Mickey, a Disney game where you actually play Mickey Mouse instead of just drag his buddies Donald Duck and Goofy along for the ride, instead.

No, sadly (for JRPG fans, anyway) this seems like the permanent trend as Western developers for all genres take the reins of the video game industry from Japanese developers mired in their old ways, unwilling to adapt with the times and create products that appeal to more than just the often quirky tastes of the Japanese consumers.

In response to a recent IGN interview with Sony executive Peter Dille in which Mr. Dille proclaimed that the PlayStation 3 would “be around in 10 years” and eventually overtake the Xbox 360 in sales, GameStooge writer Jordan Lund unsurprisingly went on an anti-Sony tirade, making sure not to forget any of the key fanboy tactics in arguing the superiority and domination of their preferred entertainment device.

Mr. Lund gets what appears to be an ad hominem argument out of the way early on in the article, declaring that Mr. Dille’s position cannot be taken seriously because he is a Sony executive and other Sony executives have in the past professed confidence that the PlayStation 3 would surpass its competitors (or at least its primary competitor, the Xbox 360). While Mr. Lund is of course unable to support any point of view that said Sony executives are wrong about their predictions since the timeframe has not yet passed, the intent is certainly there to link the possibly dubious nature of their claims to the validity of Mr. Dille’s.

The crux of Sony’s argument that the PlayStation 3 will eventually outsell the Xbox 360 is the premise that Microsoft’s console is not “future proof” and thus cannot possibly stay on the market for an extended period of time beyond the historically standard “five year lifespan” afforded to video game consoles, resulting in a period of time during which the PlayStation 3 will no longer have competition from the Xbox 360. This is a laughable strategy because the PlayStation 3 does not and will not have a deep and broad enough library of software to be a viable “cheap” option for so many years after the next Microsoft, Nintendo and, yes, Sony consoles hit the market. The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 were able to stay relevant because they had enormous game libraries – the PlayStation 3 selection pales in comparison.

Mr. Lund has the generally right idea, but argues based on the iffy prediction that Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will not launch new consoles anytime within the next six years (assuming that Mr. Dille was actually referring to a ten year total life cycle for the PlayStation 3 and not an additional ten years from now). The notions that in six years the economy will not have recovered to the degree where gamers would not be interested in new console technology and would be fine with playing Project Natal games and editions of Halo and Gears of War that look pretty much the same as the ones we played a couple years ago are ridiculous at best.

He continues with irrelevant paragraphs of stats that are focused entirely on the North American region with no consideration whatsoever for the rest of the world mainly because the only significant Xbox 360 sales lead is in this region whereas the two consoles are nose-to-nose in Europe and the Xbox 360 is a lost cause in Japan. After crunching tons of numbers to show just what kind of a lead the Xbox 360 has over the PlayStation 3 in terms of install base, he “put(s) things in perspective” with an extreme example of the PlayStation 3 needing a whole year of sales consistent to its 2009 numbers while the Xbox 360 sells nothing instead of the realistic example – the PlayStation 3 maintaining its current weekly worldwide lead of just under 37,000 for three years – that might show just how flimsy his whole line of argument is.

In short, Mr. Lund’s protestation of Sony’s incompetent arrogance is understandable, but his modus operandi of using nearly any statement by Sony that doesn’t fit into his narrow world view of things to vomit a veritable feast of selective statistics tarnishes his credibility by painting him as little more than a bitter fanboy trying desperately to play down any bit of positive news for “the other system.”

And lest we forget – Nintendo did not lose the 16-bit console wars to Sega. Sega squandered a two and a half year lead time for their Genesis console to end up with only a 10% market share lead on Nintendo just two short years after the launch of the Super Nintendo. Now, to put that into perspective, imagine a scenario where the PlayStation 3 didn’t launch until December 2007 yet started off 2009 with the same proportion of sales to the Xbox 360’s that it enjoys today (45% of sales that don’t include the Wii) at only 10% the number of games that the Xbox 360 had. That would be pretty impressive indeed.

Note: It might be useful for me to mention that the reason why Mr. Lund’s fanboyism doesn’t surprise me is because he is a (now rare) poster in the Usenet forum alt.games.video.xbox that I often browse.

It’s not very often that a video game sequel notably improves on its predecessor in almost every way. Left4Dead 2 for the Xbox 360 did it. From what I’ve read in magazines and various websites and heard from friends, Uncharted 2 for the PlayStation 3, the 2009 Game of the Year for most industry publications and gaming websites, did it (I have not yet replaced my broken PS3 and so have only played a little bit of the game on a friend’s system).

However, for every Left4Dead 2 and Uncharted 2, you’ve got games like Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 which is every bit as good as the first game but doesn’t really improve on it in any way, Knights of the Old Republic 2 which is technically on par with the previous game but is a creative disappointment with an underwhelming story and uninteresting characters, and Gears of War 2 which has even better visuals and underlying technology than the original game but feels like a confused mess half the time with new styles of gameplay that feel too disconnected from the core game.

The developer Pyramid, a branch of Sony’s respected Japan Studio, fortunately succeeded where Ubisoft Montreal, Obsidian Entertainment and Epic Games didn’t by making some minor (but important) changes and adding some new stuff without doing anything too radical: they built on the tried and true Patapon formula without messing around with it too much.

Very little has changed in the core game design. You still act as the Patapon’s deity, leading the little eyeballs who find themselves stranded in a new world with their former foes, the Zigatons, after their seafaring vessel is destroyed. You still issue commands to your army via timed four-press combinations of the PlayStation Portable’s four face buttons, each of which represents a talking drum -  for example, pressing circle-circle-square-circle results in the song “pon-pon-pata-pon” which orders the Patapons to attack any enemy, animal or structure within range. You still move your warriors through side scrolling levels set in various environments filled with opponents, obstacles and the occasional boss fight, and in between these levels you still return to Patapolis where you can play numerous mini-games or improve your units with harvested materials.

Indeed, for the first several levels of the game, it may seem like nothing has changed from the original Patapon. The developers took a smart approach by gradually introducing the new changes as the game progresses.

The first new feature you’ll come across is the Hero character, a special warrior who is able to act as any Patapon unit in your army and further transform into any Patapon species unlocked for a given unit. The Hero also has a unit-based special ability that is activated when you issue a certain number of commands with perfect timing – for example, the Yaripon Hero’s spears create a green cloud upon impact that damages any enemies it touches while the Tatepon Hero’s shield provides invulnerability for the entire army. Also, the Hero can wear attribute-enhancing masks that can only be acquired in the multiplayer mode.

After facing off against the giant dragon boss Dodonga from the original game and going on a few more simple missions, including one hunt, you’ll meet the first new boss in the game, a giant version of the Motiti birds you hunt named Motititi. It’s fairly easy with relatively weak attacks – including a rather lame fart attack – but is useful because it drops rare bones you can use to evolve your Patapons. Other new bosses include the much tougher Mamboss, a giant woolly mammoth who seems to shrug off damage and attacks by goring your warriors with its tusks or stomping them, and the relatively weak Sentura, a giant spider-like creature that spits acid , spears Patapons with one of its appendages and can only be damaged under certain environmental conditions.

Along the way, you’ll learn new drum commands for jumping (to avoid certain types of boss attacks) and partying (to immediately wake up from being put to sleep or frozen in ice from special attacks), a new Blizzard Miracle which summons snowfall during a mission, some new materials such as liquids and fangs, and a few new mini-games in Patapolis. There’s also a slew of new Rarepon species and a new evolution system where you can follow different paths of upgrades to get to the more powerful species.

A more noticeable change in the game, however, is the addition of three new Patapon units that each offer new tactics for the aspiring general. The first is the Toripon, an aerial unit that hurls javelins at ground-based units but is highly susceptible to anti-air weapons. The second is the Robopon, a mechanized unit that punches enemies with its two giant fists or hurls boulders that it digs out of the ground. The last – and probably the most useful – new unit is the Mahopon, a sorcerous unit that uses long range attacks such as fireballs and chain lightning strikes that change depending on what kind of staves you equip them with: once you acquire the more powerful staves, there’s really no reason to not include the Mahopon squad in your army.

Even with all the new additions and enhancements, the gameplay doesn’t really feel that much different from the original game. Rather, the changes work to open the game up further to new tactics and strategies, allowing for a much wider range of playing styles. Much of the fun is in trying out the new units for the first time to see how they fare against enemies you’ve already defeated.

Patapon 2 is a sequel done correctly. The developers didn’t try to do too much with their changes being the video game equivalent putting good sea salt on a steak: the Patapon flavor is still ever-present… it’s just kicked up a notch. The game is easily my favorite on the PlayStation Portable.

Final score: 5 out of 5

Parent to parent

As with Patapon, I don’t think there are any problems with letting your kids play this game. Children should love the appealing 2D artwork and the catchy soundtrack as well as the scores of cool boss monsters they’ll battle. The game forces players to both plan ahead and think on their toes, and promotes a love of music, all great lessons for kids. The only caveat is that the game may be a little too difficult for younger players who may not fully comprehend the nature of strategy. It’s one helluva way to learn, though.

Experience this for yourself!

• Patapon 2 (PSP) (Amazon)

It’s rare when a game comes out that is not only unique and refreshing in concept but also straight-to-the-pleasure-center-of-the-brain fun to the point of becoming a welcome addiction. It’s shocking when such a game is exclusive to the red-headed stepchild of the video game world, the PSP (a gaming system with more bad ports than the Somali coastline), which is why the industry was buzzing when Sony released Patapon in December 2007 in Japan and in February 2008 across the rest of the world.

Up to this point, the PSP’s software library was widely viewed as a graveyard full of lazy ports and hacked up follow-ups of PlayStation 2 games hampered by the PSP’s not-quite-PS2 technical specs and more importantly its lack of a second analog thumbstick which made playing games like Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories more difficult than they should have been. Developers were much more interested in getting games out quickly, regardless of incompatibilities with not just the design of the hardware but the spirit of portable gaming.

Pyramid, the development team responsible for Patapon, bucked the trend by focusing on the essence of the PSP right from the start. Instead of long levels on vast maps peppered with checkpoints, almost all of the missions in Patapon are short and easily digestible chunks of instant gratification and steady progression. Instead of resources-intensive graphics technology prone to framerate stutter and glitches, Patapon is visualized with simple yet memorable two dimensional artwork – no 3D polygons here. Most importantly, instead of complex controls and the more advanced gameplay one would expect from a console game, Patapon players only use the four face buttons to input one of less than a half dozen commands to their army – Patapon’s gameplay is about as simple as you can get while actually doing something.

Don’t mistake simplicity for shallowness, though. Pyramid kept the design and gameplay simple so the player could focus on the actual strategy and skill. You see, Patapon is at its core a mash-up of the real-time tactics and musical rhythm genres with a little bit of Peter Molyneux- or Will Wright-esque God game flavor sprinkled on top. The basic point of each mission is to make it from one end of a horizontally scrolling stage to the other, battling enemy warriors or creatures and knocking down buildings along the way. You do this by issuing commands through the PSP face buttons, each of which represents one of four talking drums whose sounds combine together to instruct the Patapons to attack or defend amongst other things. For example, hitting the “square” button three times followed by the “circle” button one time tells the Patapons to advance forward.

Victims of Pataponic wrath drop all sorts of loot ranging from money (known as ka-ching in the game) to weapons to materials, all of which can be used to evolve or customize your units. This is where a little bit of strategy comes into play as you have to decide, for example, whether the special attributes of a particular special unit outweighs its inability to wear helmets (some of which are very beneficial), or whether it would be better to spend that one rare ore you earned to specialize one of your cavalry units or one of your archers. This is not to mention that before you start any given mission, you have to choose only three out of your six available squads – infantry, heavy infantry, ranged, heavy ranged, cavalry, and archers – based on what you know about the upcoming challenges.

In addition to the basic combat stages, there are also hunting missions where you can stalk various animals, unique boss battles against gigantic dinosaurs, sandworms and robots that make the Patapons look incredibly puny, and fun little mini-games where you can participate in such activities as metalsmithy or cooking in order to earn materials or bonus items to help gain victory.

Almost all of these actions involve pressing some combination of buttons to one of the game’s many catchy beats or tunes. Whether you’re slamming a hammer into an anvil with a clank, playing a trumpet for an itchy tree (don’t ask) or firing a volley of arrows at an enormous crab, you’re creating music with the Patapons who sing different verses depending on your most recent commands. I challenge anyone to play a few levels of Patapon and then try to get the phrase “pata-pata-pata-pon” out of their head.

As great a game as Patapon is, it’s not for everyone. If you’re the type of gamer who needs epic quests, complex stories or the staccato of gunfire in order to be satisfied, you’re not going to find much satisfaction in this game. However, if you’re up for a new and unique kind of tactical gaming experience realized with an aesthetically pleasing visual design and powered by one of the most endearing soundtracks of the portable gaming world, you won’t go wrong with Patapon.

Final score: 5 out of 5

Parent to parent

I have no qualms about recommending this game for children. The strategy and tactics aspect of the game may be a bit over most young children’s heads, but the controls are more than simple enough and the visual design is kind of like a cartoon with lots of solid colors and bold lines. While there is an aspect of violence in the game – after all, you’re sending an army of warriors to fight other warriors or hunt creatures – there is no blood or gore and the characters are as far from human as you can get: Patapons are basically eyeballs with arms and legs while their nemeses the Zigatons are square shaped eyeballs with arms and legs – both simply deflate when they are defeated. More importantly, the game teaches kids the value of both planning ahead and thinking on their toes to adapt to the situation, and promotes a love of music with a focus on rhythm and beat. Chances are that your kids will love this game.

Experience this for yourself!

• Patapon (PSP) (Amazon)

Just about two weeks ago, IGN editor Ryan Geddes wrote a piece for the site’s PlayStation 3 channel titled “Editorial: Why I Bought a PS3 – How Sony (and Microsoft) finally pushed an Xbox gamer back into the PlayStation fold.” The title of the article should have been “Editorial: Why My Inner Sony Fanboy Finally Resurfaced.”

Mr. Geddes starts out by cleverly painting himself as some sort of diehard Xbox 360 gamer so that his “conversion” to the PlayStation 3 has much more impact, as if his buying a PlayStation 3 for himself – a gaming journalist who no doubt has near unlimited access to more than one of them at his workplace – was testament to some sort of dramatic victory for Sony: If even a hardcore Xbox 360 gamer like me jumps ship, the PlayStation 3 must really be the superior console!

Of course, he drops subtle hints at his past life as a PlayStation 2 owner but spends far more time explicitly bashing the Xbox 360 than actually delivering solid arguments as to why the PlayStation 3 is a good system. The best he can do is offer the vague opinion that “it’s cool and Japanese” – with no elaboration on why the console is cool and what being of Japanese design has to do with that – and recycle the tired hardware diatribe while ignoring how much better Microsoft was – and still is – than Sony at dealing with those problems: Microsoft replaced my launch Xbox 360, which lasted just shy of three years of generally heavy gaming usage, for free whereas Sony asked for (but didn’t receive) $150 to repair my 40GB PlayStation 3, whose touted Blu-ray drive died after about sixteen months of infrequent gaming (with the rest of the console following suit a week later).

“It recalls a time when Japan was the center of the hardcore gaming universe, before it ceded that mantle to the West.” Is that like at all like how the Xbox 360 and its predecessor recalled a time when the West was the center of the gaming universe with systems like the Atari 2600, the Intellivision and the ColecoVision before the video game market crash and the emergence of the Nintendo Entertainment System as the new go-to home entertainment device for video games?

Sony’s PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems ruled their respective generations because the games, and not the systems themselves, were cooler than what was available for the competition, and games are inherently platform-neutral pieces of intellectual property: technically there wasn’t any reason why Super Mario Bros. couldn’t appear on the Sega Master System, Final Fantasy VII couldn’t appear on the Saturn, God of War couldn’t appear on the Xbox, and Halo 3 couldn’t appear on the PlayStation 3. Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 is going to be no “less Final Fantasy” than Final Fantasy XIII on the PlayStation 3 unless you’re one of the few who think that watching hours upon hours of drawn out, self-congratulatory and pretentious pre-rendered cutscenes is an admirable trait of the series.

The Xbox 360 succeeded – and continues to succeed – this generation for the same reason. Microsoft recognized the potential appeal of previously PC-only genres like FPS and “western” (i.e. computer) RPG to console gamers and built the right system for developers to most easily bring games of such genres to the modern console gaming market. If you build it, they will come: Microsoft built it, and gamers came by the millions.

Engrossed in his fanboy-fueled “epiphany,” Mr. Geddes seems to instead think that Microsoft forced the Xbox 360 on gamers by “hijack(ing) the game industry… (and) beat(ing) Sony at its own game” – Microsoft did in 2005 what Sony did a decade earlier so why all the bitterness? What he doesn’t realize is that gamers didn’t buy the Xbox 360 because they had to but because they wanted to. The excitement and fervor surrounding the Xbox 360 was far greater than any shown for the PlayStation 3 a year later for a variety of reasons, including a significant shift in the types of games the majority of the market wanted and a conspicuous ambivalence by most gamers towards the overhyped new technologies Sony wanted them to pay an extra $200 for.

With last year’s PlayStation 3 price cuts, the playing field is more level now yet the consumers still want the Xbox 360 because that’s where the best overall gaming experience is. “Cool” isn’t defined by a glossy black exterior (and all the lovely fingerprints that go with it), high-definition movies (which most people don’t actually care much about) or a Cell processor that nobody cares to work with (unless they’re owned by Sony).

At the same time, “cool” isn’t eroded by a likely niche new technology (anyone who thinks Project Natal has a seriously deluded perception of market reality) or a middle-aged Xbox Live spokesperson whose “insecure awkwardness” only graces the eyes of the few who actually watch Major’s Minute instead of playing Modern Warfare 2.

I wonder if Mr. Geddes sees the irony in attacking the legitimacy of Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb as a viable console cheerleader when it’s because of the demands of gamers the same age as he was when the PlayStation brand first arrived that gave Sony an opportunity in the first place. As far as solid console spokespersons are concerned, I’m interested in hearing who Mr. Geddes thinks is even fit for that role on the PlayStation 3 side. Last I checked, Sony wasn’t even concerned enough about their community to have someone other than aged corporate executives like Jack Tretton, Ken Kutaragi and Kazuo Hirai toot their system’s horn.

And Jessica Chobot, host of IGN Strategize which is front and center on Xbox Live, isn’t too shabby a mouthpiece – just ask the PSP. Sure, she’s not actually an official Xbox 360 or Xbox Live spokesperson, but the average gamer, who doesn’t browse gaming websites or read gaming magazines wouldn’t know that – they just see her plastered on one frame of Xbox Live almost every day. Perception is everything as Sony found out when suddenly the Xbox 360 was the talk of the industry.

Well, everyone except closeted PlayStation 3 fanboys with press passes.

About a week ago, a fellow poster to the alt.games.video.xbox Usenet group referenced an Engadget article about gadgets they considered to have defined the decade in which the Engadget staff chose Microsoft’s Xbox 360 for the gaming world. Despite being an avid fan of the Xbox 360, I had to laugh at Engadget’s choice considering the two systems they listed as “runners up” had much more impact on the gaming world than my current favorite console.

First of all, the Xbox 360 was only around for half of the decade and didn’t really pick up steam until about a year or so after launch due to the widespread “red ring of death” hardware failures that I suppose do make a case for the Xbox 360 defining the decade in some way. Engadget editor Paul Miller states that “You don’t remember a console for the chips inside or the case design, but the games you played.” I counter that what gamers most remembered about the Xbox 360 from 2005-2007 were four letters: RROD.

Miller goes on to list Gears of War and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as the two games that made the Xbox 360 so very special to him mainly due to the Xbox Live online gaming experiences he had with them. I agree with him that those are two of the top games people can play on the system. I just have a slight issue with him ignoring that Call of Duty is, and has always been, available on the PlayStation 3 with online play made possible by Sony’s PlayStation Network, which is free in contrast to Microsoft’s $50 per year charge for Xbox Live play.

Now, before PlayStation fanboys get all tingly, I’ll point out that I’m not bashing Xbox Live or being critical of the charge – I in fact believe that you get what you pay for with these two services and that Xbox Live is a much more robust network that offers a better experience with that monthly or annual fee gamers pay to use it – but highlighting the folly of basing a claim that the Xbox 360 is the defining gaming system of the decade on its online gaming service (as indicate by “We went with the Xbox 360 for its innovation in online play”).

In choosing the gaming device of the decade, you have to look at a much bigger picture. The PlayStation 2 debuted in 2000, the beginning of the decade, and is still on sale today. Sure, its sales are straggling now and it may very well be on its last legs this year, but it’s been strong for the better part of the decade. In fact, it took the Xbox 360 a year and ten months to outsell the PlayStation 2 at the global level and even longer to really solidify a sales advantage over the then 7-year-old previous generation console.

The PlayStation 2 managed to survive this long on the strength of its games, the most important aspect of any video gaming platform. Like Mr. Miller said, you remember a console for the games you played – the PlayStation 2 has 1,800 of them. Many top franchises got their start on the system. Many of the best entries in beloved franchises called the PlayStation 2 their home. While Sony’s arrogance regarding this generation has cost them exclusivity on third-party video game series like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and Devil May Cry, those franchises were available only to console gamers who owned PlayStation 2’s from 2000 to 2009.

And the Xbox 360’s current success is really all due to Sony’s past efforts. Had it not been for Sony’s foresight with the PlayStation 2 – and the PlayStation before it – we’d all still be playing Mario and Kirby games (not that I have any problem with this – I love Nintendo’s games – but I know a lot of “hardcore” gamers who would give up gaming if their only choices were between one cute and cuddly mascot or another). Sony is responsible for making video games cool again, and the bulk of that transformation took place shortly after the launch of the PlayStation 2 with the release of games like Grand Theft Auto III, Final Fantasy X and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs.

Now, I can kind of understand where people might have an easy time forgetting about a previous generation system that debuted almost a decade ago – I myself sometimes feel as if this generation of consoles has been around forever and pine for what amazement the next series of hardware and games will offer. However, that’s still no excuse for choosing the Xbox 360 as the defining gaming device of the decade when one of its contemporaries, the Nintendo Wii, has had a far greater impact on our favorite past time and the industry behind it.

The Wii landed on retail shelves about a year after the Xbox 360 did, but unlike Microsoft’s big white box Nintendo’s little one made an immediate splash, outselling its competitors on a weekly basis right out of the gate and surpassing the Xbox 360’s total sales in less than nine months (at which point the Xbox 360 had been on the market for 21). Even though the Wii’s software library was severely lacking in the traditional “core” games that long-time gamers favored, the console thrived on the strength of its innovative style of user interaction which was much more appealing to casual and non-gamers who had no interest in learning what the eight buttons, two sticks and one directional pad on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3’s controllers did.

The Wii has been a complete game changer for the video game industry. Thanks to Nintendo, the console gamer market expanded by several degrees, a result of their decision to stop engaging in the traditional “red ocean” strategy of beating competitors for existing market space and instead employ a “blue ocean” strategy of using innovation in key areas to create new market space. Millions of people who would never have thought to buy a video game console, whose gaming experience was limited to marathon sessions of Minesweeper, Bejeweled or Diner Dash on their PCs or who abandoned video games after the Nintendo Entertainment System simply because games got too complex to be a recreational vehicle quickly became part of that new market space, and Nintendo hasn’t looked back.

And while we’re talking about the Big N, let’s not forget the current king of the portable gaming space, the Nintendo DS, which also happens to be the king of all video gaming with more systems sold than any other handheld or console this generation. The DS debuted in November 2004, and in the half-decade since then it has become something of a portable gaming phenomenon, consistently outselling all other gaming systems worldwide on a monthly basis. Nintendo is basically printing their own money with this platform, which is so popular that millions of people have actually paid for what amounts to a marginally improved version of the hardware, the Nintendo DSi.

Nintendo’s foray into the blue ocean style of thinking truly started with the DS, which offered features that were innovations in the video gaming space, namely the touch screen interface, the second screen and the wireless connectivity for quick and easy multiplayer gaming, and games that took advantage of the functionality.

Nintendo even expanded the breadth of their library beyond traditional games with titles like Brain Age in which the player engages in brief activities designed to stimulate the mind, Nintendogs in which the player interacts with a virtual pet using the touch screen and microphone, and the Personal Trainer series of titles in which the player trains in various activities like cooking, mathematics and walking (this title comes with pedometers that are wirelessly connected to the DS system).

With the incredible impact the PlayStation 2, Wii and DS have had on the gaming space in the past 10 years, each essentially redefining what gaming was – and is – it’s a little shocking that people who are for all intents and purposes objective journalists could possibly cite the Xbox 360 has having been more important to this decade of video gaming. Of course, I realize that ultimately this is just a matter of opinion, but I believe that when you make such a bold statement you need to back it up with more than Xbox Live and, literally, a couple of games.

Experience this for yourself!

• Nintendo Wii Console (Amazon)
• Microsoft Xbox 360 Arcade Console (Amazon)
• Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite Console (Amazon)
• Microsoft Xbox 360 Limited Edition Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Bundle (Amazon)
• Sony PlayStation 2 Console (Amazon)
• Nintendo DS Lite System (Amazon)
• Nintendo DSi System (Amazon)
• Nintendogs Dalmatian & Friends (DS) (Amazon)
• Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS) (Amazon)
• Personal Trainer: Cooking (DS) (Amazon)
• Personal Trainer: Math (DS) (Amazon)
• Personal Trainer: Walking (DS) (Amazon)
• Gears of War (Xbox 360) (Amazon)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) (Amazon)